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May 14, 2020

Post By Sarah Dickhut
The COVID-19 pandemic created and continues to create unprecedented levels of economic disruption in local and international communities. With so much uncertainty, business owners and entrepreneurs may feel the safest course of action is to minimize operations and delay expansion plans. In fact, they should do precisely the opposite, says Debi Durham, Director of the Iowa Economic Development....... Read More

April 16, 2020

Post By Sarah Dickhut
In a precedential decision issued December of 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) in Hulu, LLC. V. Sound View Innovations, LLC (IPR
2018-01039) considered what is required for a petitioner in an inter partes review (IPR) to show that an asserted reference qualifies as a “printed
publication.” Petitioner Hulu argued that patentee Sound View’s patent was obvious over a ....... Read More

March 31, 2020

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Earlier this week the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued a decision in the case of Amarin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Hikma Pharmaceuticals
USA Inc., regarding the validity of six patents owned by Amarin Pharmaceuticals for the drug Vascepa. Amarin filed suit to prevent Hikma and Dr. Reddy’s
Laboratories (DRL) from launching generic competitor drugs to Vascepa, and the....... Read More

December 09, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Elon Musk recently revealed that his company “Tesla” was almost branded “Faraday.” On December 1, Musk tweeted “Tesla was almost called Faraday, as [the] original holder of Tesla Motors trademark refused to sell it to us!” When another Twitter user asked how
Tesla eventually got the rights to the name, Musk responded “We sent the nicest person in the company to sit on his doorstep....... Read More

October 18, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
In the latest battle of branding, the Italian government has confiscated approximately 250 tubes of the “Prosecco & Pink Peppercorn” flavored Pringles
from several grocery stores in the Veneto region. The Prosecco flavored Pringles were seized on the grounds that the use of the term “Prosecco” was
allegedly not approved by the wine’s consortium of Italy. The name Prosecco has been....... Read More

August 15, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
On August 8, 2019 The Ohio State University filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the word mark “THE” to be used in connection with clothing, namely “t-shirts, baseball caps
and hats.” Unlike Ohio State’s other trademark applications, which cover the phrase “The Ohio State University” as a whole, the August 2019 application covers
only....... Read More

June 24, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Data privacy and cybersecurity practices are becoming increasingly important in view of new legislation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as well as the increasing sophistication of hackers and bad actors. Between 2000 and 2017, cybercrime
and breaches of privacy impacted more than 4 million individuals. Cybercrime and br....... Read More

April 30, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Intellectual property (IP) theft of corporate intellectual property can have significant ramifications for businesses and other entities. Corporate IP
includes a variety of assets, such as patented technologies, trade secrets, copyrighted information and marketing materials, marketing and pricing
plans, customer and partner data, and business reputation. IP assets play a valuable role....... Read More

March 01, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
In mid-January of 2019, McDonald’s lost its rights to the trademark ‘Big Mac’ in a European case which ruled in favor of an Irish fast food chain, Supermac’s.
Supermac’s, founded in 1978 by Gaelic football player Pat McDonagh, offers a burger called the ‘Mighty Mac’. McDonald’s asserted that the ‘Mighty Mac’,
along with other Supermac’s offerings, created confusion among consumers. In....... Read More

January 21, 2019

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Robyn Rihanna Fenty (“Rihanna”) has filed a lawsuit against her father, Ronald Fenty, over the use of the name “Fenty.” Ronald Fenty uses the family surname
in his company Fenty Entertainment, a company which recruits artistic talent and also develops television
programs, motion pictures, and record producing. Over the last several years Rihanna has developed her label via Fenty cosme....... Read More

September 28, 2018

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Earlier this month the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Aviation held a hearing regarding the emergence of new aerospace
technologies—particularly Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) — and how they can be incorporated into existing
airspace systems. As unmanned aerospace innovation grows, regulatory agencie....... Read More

July 05, 2018

Post By Sarah Dickhut
The term “CRISPR,” which is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, generally refers to RNA-guided genome editing technology
used to engineer the genetic material of organisms with high accuracy and precision. It has wide applications in a variety of fields including genetics,
biology, agriculture, medicine, and digital data storage, to name a few. Mo....... Read More

June 09, 2018

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Bioinformatics has increasingly become of interest in the last decade. Bioinformatics generally refers to the use of computational methods used to compile,
analyze, visualize effects, and predict trends or outcomes for oftentimes large data sets. Bioinformatics tools can be applied to gene regulation,
immunology, drug repositioning, drug identification, and virtually any other applica....... Read More

February 15, 2018

Post By Sarah Dickhut
Following the United Kingdom triggering its formal exit from the European Union, negotiations regarding the details of the exit and the following transition period have begun. As one could expect, this negotiation
process has brought to light underlying tensions between the UK and the EU. These tensions recently reached a peak when earlier this month the EU's
negotiator warned t....... Read More

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Purpose

The attorneys of McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C. designed this blog as an informational and educational resource about intellectual property law for our clients, other attorneys, and the public as a whole. Our goal is to provide cutting-edge information about recent developments in intellectual property law, including relevant case law updates, proposed legislation, and intellectual property law in the news.

Disclaimer

McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C. provides this blog for general informational purposes only. By using this blog, you agree that the information on this blog does not constitute legal or other professional advice and no attorney-client or other relationship is created between you and McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C. Do not consider this blog to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified, licensed attorney. While we try to revise this blog on a regular basis, it may not reflect the most current legal developments. We consciously refrain from expressing opinions on this blog and instead, offer it as a form of information and education, however if there appears an expression of opinion, realize that those views are indicative of the individual and not of the firm as a whole.